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Avro Lancaster, in military service 1945-1965

This book packs an enormous amount of information into a relatively small number of pages and provides some stunning illustration in specially commissioned full colour drawings. At A4, the book provides the size of drawing required by model makers. There is excellent concise text and a wealth of photographs, many of them very rare. There is also coverage of some of the best plastic model kits, together with special components to produce outstanding unique or rare models.

NAME: Avro Lancaster, in military service 1945-1965
DATE: 200215
FILE: R2141
AUTHOR: Martin Derry, Neil Robinson
PUBLISHER: Pen & Sword, Flight Craft
BINDING: soft back
PAGES: 96
PRICE: £16.99
GENRE: Non Fiction
SUBJECT: Lancaster, Merlin, ASR, maritime patrol, bombing, research, model making, model engineering, model kits, colour drawings
ISBN: 1-47382-274-0
IMAGE: B2141.jpg
BUYNOW: http://tinyurl.com/mu2ym72
LINKS:
DESCRIPTION: The primary purpose of this new book is to provide information for model makers, to enable them to build less familiar versions of the Lancaster bomber in service. Much of the mountain of text and images published for the iconic Lancaster cover only the World War Two era and almost exclusively the RAF Bomber Command service. Although WWII was an intensive operational period for the Lancaster, it did not perform its first operation until March 1942 and the war ended in 1945, with the Lancaster not being required after VE Day in the Far East. From that point, it was to remain in military service until 1965. This provides a great deal of scope for modellers and also a long period that has received very little cover for aircraft enthusiasts. This is an appealing book that will satisfy model makers, but will also reward enthusiasts and those millions who simply love the Lancaster.

The RAF was desperately short of suitable aircraft with which to conduct a strategic bombing campaign in 1939. This was incredible because the RAF was specifically created and tasked with developing strategic bombing capabilities when it was formed in 1918 by amalgamation of the Royal Naval Air Service and the Army’s Royal Flying Corps. A crash procurement program was put in place and was to eventually produce three successful long range four engine bombers, the Short Sterling, the Handley Page Halifax, and the outstanding Avro Lancaster. Each of the three new aircraft offered significant advances in bombing capability, but the Lancaster was to reign supreme. It was popular with its crews, unpopular with the Germans, able to carry massive bomb loads and also able to adapt to a very wide range of bomb types. It was therefore natural that Bomber Command would fight tooth and nail to retain its exclusive claim on production, even though there was a great demand for capabilities the Lancaster had in spades for maritime patrol and Air Sea Rescue.

However, as the strategic bombing campaign moved into a well-developed pattern, and aircraft production began to exceed Bomber Command requirements, the Lancaster began to join Coastal Command and, by the war’s end, squadrons were using the Lancaster for long range maritime patrol and attack, and to fly ASR sorties, dropping lifeboats to survivors and reporting their positions for rescue ships. By 1945 there were many potentially surplus Lancasters and many nations needing bombers and maritime patrol aircraft. For this reason the Lancaster was to soldier on, doing valuable work until 1965, and continues on as a display aircraft in Britain and in Canada, with the prospect of additional aircraft being restored to flying condition.

Given the length of service it is perhaps surprising that the Lancaster is barely known as a service aircraft from 1945. One reason for this is probably the introduction of jet aircraft, starting with the British Canberra bomber and first generation jet fighters, and the continued development of the Lancaster for civil and military aircraft. The Lincoln was developed to replace the Lancaster and fly bombing missions against Japan. The Shackleton was developed to provide maritime patrol and Airborne Early Warning, and the helicopter, flying from shore bases and ships, was to take on the role of SAR at sea. The Lincoln and Shackleton were very dependent on the Lancaster design as their starting point and the Merlin engine was replaced by the Griffon, as it had been in the later marks of Spitfire.

This book packs an enormous amount of information into a relatively small number of pages and provides some stunning illustration in specially commissioned full colour drawings. At A4, the book provides the size of drawing required by model makers. There is excellent concise text and a wealth of photographs, many of them very rare. There is also coverage of some of the best plastic model kits, together with special components to produce outstanding unique or rare models.